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Remembering Windows 2000

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Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#51

Post by zozbot234 »

derefr wrote: post #47
gruez wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sad that they got rid of it in windows 8 and later. >the classic theme was a lot leaner on system resources maybe , but it probably also made things run slower because it forces everything to be done in software rather than hardware. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20130327-00/?p=48... >Starting in Windows Vista, a lot of visual effects were offloaded to the graphics card. Consequently, the impact on…

There's no real way to translate the classic theme "as designed" to hi-DPI systems, AFAIK; let alone to allow it to freely morph between desktop and tablet interaction paradigms when you dock/undock a two-in-one. You could in theory design a modern UI that resembles the classic UI, but it wouldn't really be "the classic UI". A large part of what makes the classic UI have the particular look it does is that it has cus…

> There's no real way to translate the classic theme "as designed" to hi-DPI systems, AFAIK

The classic theme supports arbitrary sizes (in px or "device-independent" units) for both text and widgets, which addresses HiDPI and touch readiness. What it might have trouble with however is mixed DPI, where moving a window across two screens requires rendering it with different pixel densities. But that was not on the horizon in the Windows 8.x days.

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#53

Post by RandomGuyDTB »

> Windows 2000 also served as an alternative to its successor, Windows XP, for several years. XP included some features that were controversial at the time. These included an Internet-based product activation system that complained if you changed your PC hardware, and a colorful new shell interface some derided as “Fisher-Price.”

Did nobody ever change the theme back to Windows Classic? It was really simple to switch over (like, ten clicks at most) and then you could get comfortable with the 2000 interface again.

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#54

Post by edoceo »

anthony_barker wrote: post #41
amiga-workbench wrote: post #17

Windows 2000 also represents the zenith of UI design for Microsoft software. I'm still rather baffled about how people look back fondly on XP, it looked like a toy for toddlers, and installing the Zune theme was the first thing I did after a fresh install to try and tone it down. The in-your-face over decoration of UI's thankfully hasn't persisted, but instead we're seeing a similar kind of decadence among our suppos…

NT 3.5.1 SP3 had all the internals - 2000 just added a new UI. Best if run on a DEC Alpha chip

NT4 and 2000 (NT5) were more than just UI. We added loads of features.

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#55

Post by ubercow13 »

proverbialbunny wrote: post #3

Microsoft's best OS of all time was Windows 2000. Imho, Snow Leopard was Apple's best. There is something nice about a bug free operating system that "just works" as intended. No problems, no hassles. No load times, even back then. Back then it was common to have a computer with 128MB+ of ram but Windows 2000 ran on 64MB of that, so it was the first non page file heavy OS that just snapped. In comparison, a year late…

No load times?! I seem to remember Win 95-XP era involved almost comically long boot times especially if you waited for your hard drive to stop churning after getting to the desktop, but maybe I am misremembering. It wasn't so much the OS's fault, though.

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#57

Post by [deleted] »

amiga-workbench wrote: post #17

Windows 2000 also represents the zenith of UI design for Microsoft software. I'm still rather baffled about how people look back fondly on XP, it looked like a toy for toddlers, and installing the Zune theme was the first thing I did after a fresh install to try and tone it down. The in-your-face over decoration of UI's thankfully hasn't persisted, but instead we're seeing a similar kind of decadence among our suppos…

[deleted]

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#58

Post by smcl »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #44
ianlevesque wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That Fisher Price colored theme though...

Not sure why so many people complain about it when it was trivial to enable a classic theme to make it look like Win2K.

I did the same but I recall there was a few elements that remained - the windows logo on the start menu was a bit colourful, and a few other bits couldn’t be changed too

Re: Remembering Windows 2000

#60

Post by scrooched_moose »

RandomGuyDTB wrote: post #53

> Windows 2000 also served as an alternative to its successor, Windows XP, for several years. XP included some features that were controversial at the time. These included an Internet-based product activation system that complained if you changed your PC hardware, and a colorful new shell interface some derided as “Fisher-Price.” Did nobody ever change the theme back to Windows Classic? It was really simple to switch…

I usually ran it in the silver theme:

http://pcdesktops.emuunlim.com/pictures/skins/desktopx/winxp...

It was a big improvement over the default.

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